Contents

Introduction

My name is Þórý Veðardóttir (THOR-ee vay-DER-daw-ter). My name is said like "Story!" with more Thor. This is my a silly mnemonic. Since I have a hard time remembering other people's names, I like to make my name easier to remember.

I joined the Society for Creative Anachronisms in anno societatis 47, and became a Herald at Pennsic 42. I'm also a Norse (Viking) Shield Maiden, and a novice Heavy List Fighter. (I'm a slow learner when I'm not dealing with books.)

I am the Pallet Herald of the East Kingdom. This means I help people choose and register their heraldry, and I can draw their heraldry and prepare the paperwork for them.

​I have been assigned female, but I am genderqueer. The pronouns I prefer are they, them, and theirs. (Please refer to me with these pronouns instead of she, her, and hers.) The Society is working on creating titles for people who do not feel that they are male or female. I have been Awarded Arms, so I ask to be addressed as Nobilis Þórý instead of Lady Þórý.

If someone is making me a scroll, I would love to have something with cat footprints. And cats in general.

Persona

I'm a Viking Shield Maiden and sailor from the village of Tønsberg in the Northlands. According to the Christian method of counting years, it's 994 A.D. Like many other sailors, I follow Thor. I usually bring my Runestones to gatherings and enjoy giving readings.

My device is 'Azure, a winged ounce within an orle argent.' This means my shield has a blue background, with a silver winged cat in the default posture, rampant. The orle is the extra silver border. The design comes from a combination of heraldry of my favorite author's two lady knights. Tamora Pierce first wrote about Alanna the Lioness, whose shield is red with a gold lioness rampant. Her second lady knight, Keladry the Protector of the Small, has a blue shield with a silver owl and a silver orle, which distinguishes a female knight in her books.

As a Herald, I consider myself an honorary member of House Ravenclaw, and my favorite colors are blue and silver. I am not an owl person, and the Mountain Lion is my Patronus, so I wanted a silver lioness rampant on a blue field with a silver border. Due to the sheer enormity of registered devices in the Society with cats, this design conflicted with an already registered device. My consulting herald suggested putting wings on my cat, which I later learned was a very common solution for clearing conflicts. Since I was going for a combination of cat and owl, I was pleased with this alteration. My only regret is that my device is registered as an 'ounce' rather than a 'lioness' due to heraldic rules. You may have noticed that my Heraldry looks similar to the Silver Tyger award for the East Kingdom. Because I registered my Heraldry before the Order was created, I had to give the entire East Kingdom permission to conflict with my registered heraldry.

My other registered device is my Badge. Badges are lesser forms of Heraldry, usually simple designs that are easy to drawn, paint, or embroider onto personal items. Since I've been putting Thor's hammers on a number of my things that Muggles see, the Mjollner shape was a clear choice for me. To further distinguish this black Thor's hammer as my own, I wrote my name across it in silver Elder Futhark Runes: Thorn, Othila, Raido, Eoh. Since the Elder Futhark doesn't map perfectly to English, my name is spelled TH-O-R-EI.

My name was picked from the end of the alphabet on the Viking Answer Lady Name articles. My first name, Þórý, describes a person who follows Thor and has odd luck. My last name is a hat tip to my online handle that means 'daughter of storms.' I looked through the Old Norse words for 'storm' and 'Veðar' is a pun on my mundane name, so I ran with it.

Finally, I have registered an Alternate Persona. The Roman Republic is my second-favorite time period after the Viking Age, and I wanted to have a male persona. I also wanted a name that reflected my Silver Ounce heraldry: Marcus Octavius Argentarius Leo. Marcus is one of my favorite male names, and 'Argentarius Leo' means Silver Lion. (I studied Latin in High School.)(Thank you, Gargoyles!) Octavius is a hat-tip to Emperor Augustus' birth name, and also a nod to Jim Butcher's Codex Alera novels.